FN CITY GUIDE: LONDON

The Double Ps of London: Portobello & Primark

(from this post)

It’s been a fruitful day, and the second last day of London! This is it, really, I declare London to be the best city for shopping in Europe.

It’s hard to be cohesive, but let’s see now. It’s not convenient to post photos as I’m borrowing a laptop from a friend I’m staying with, so I’ll walk you through a descriptive version of my day. In the morning, I popped into Harrods for a bit and saw a fluffy black brolly for 100 pounds. Is that price-tag even legal?!

Suddenly, it was 2pm and I was set to meet Kit, fashion freelancer and style-hunter as well.

It’s my first time meeting her, but I knew there was major fun to be had with someone who knows London well! We explored Portobello Market together, and I got to understand a lot more of the London fashion scene from the shopping trip which stretched to three hours.

The vintage stalls at Portobello Market were mindblowing – each individual item was one of a kind and frankly most pieces were decently priced. There was even a stall selling deconstructed Victorian-era coats amongst other precious items.

It definitely helped to shop with someone living in the city, she pointed out vintage stores and tiny corners of stalls which I’d never have noticed if I were to explore the place on my own. I walked away with a pretty fabulous snake bangle with ruby eyes, which upon reflection was probably influenced by my visit to the Ancient Egyptian exhibition at the Louvre.

I was asking her about general shopping in London, such as where on earth I can get a faux leather jacket in Spring for an affordable price, and her answers all pointed me to Primark. With a bit of time left, off we went to Primark, with a bit of poking around in Beyond Retro.

Beyond Retro was fab – I feel silly explaining this as I’m a tourist, but it is this vintage store with several branches around London. I saw crinoline skirts and vintage red military jackets, different colored top hats, among other gems. I found the branch near Oxford Circus to be an amazing experience, but it’s supposed to be the smallest one – I need to be mentally prepared to enter the big one, then!

At Primark, I grabbed the nearest leather jacket I saw. It turned out to be what I was looking for, and with the original price tag of 21 pounds I had to grab it. I figured it will be less than what I have to pay in Singapore for a leather jacket anyway, but after double checking the receipt, it turned out to be on sale for 8 pounds. Could be an off-season sale item, but I majorly scored on this one!

After that I regrettably had to head off to watch Les Misérables, which I’ve been wanting to watch for more than a decade. At the end of that, I was definitely not dry-eyed – it ranks up there with Phantom of the Opera, which I caught on the Singapore leg of its world tour. One of the best things about a long-running musical is the great teamwork of the cast, so the entire performance was smooth and very magnificent.

Once again, sorry for the lack of photos.

A blissful Stephie

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Arrived in London!

(from this post)

Last leg of the trip, and I’m very very exhausted, but in the good way of course (:

I’m staying with a friend of my travelmate, and there are 6 Singaporeans in this London flat. I feel like a student too, with a housemate cramming his study notes next to me, and two more playing Warcraft and online mahjong on my right.

Of course, in London I must do what Londoners do! So far the weather is just what I expect London to be like. Wet, cloudy, drizzling every five minutes on and off. It is weird but I’m kind of glad its like that, because the weather matches my expectations of the place!

I did a walking tour again today, as I did in Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris. My post for help on itinerary pointed me towards the walking tour and it took care of the touristy part of the trip easily. If you plan to visit Europe, please do check out the walking tours!

I’ve also climbed St. Paul’s Cathedral, and with aching calves I set off to conquer Oxford Circus. What a heaven that was, together with Carnaby Street. In three hours I explored close to thirty stores, vintage and high street alike. Uniqlo was fab, Urban Outfitters was frankly a tad overpriced, the mega Topshop was mind-blowing, especially the cute shoe section. I’d also bought my top hat from Top Man and will expect to be strutting around Singapore with it, as well as white heart shaped sunglasses.

So far, I am loving London, especially since there is no language barrier! (:

Your friend in foreign lands
Stephie

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London Shops

(from this post)

We’ve received several e-mails regarding a good list of shops to visit in Europe, as some of you will be heading there in June or July. Seeing that I just came back, it would be obvious that I will have bits of goodness to share! Here are my recommendations for the following cities: London, Amsterdam, Paris, Prague and Berlin.

I hit London with very good advice from the London bloggers, including Susie and Kit. The areas which turn up in my discussions were only recognisable to me from the Face Hunter’s hunting grounds for his style shots. My first recommendation will be Brick Lane – if possible hit the Sunday market, which I missed, but I hear it is extremely fabulous. You can probably get a better account by someone living in London, but I’ll have a go.

Taking the tube to Liverpool Street Station you will need to navigate with a map as Brick Lane is a good five minute walk away. The area is filled with Indian eateries, and at 2pm on a rainy Saturday afternoon I definitely did not expect it to be quiet, but it was.

The area fills up towards 5pm, and you can see amazing dressers out there. Great salon-fixed hair with red lipstick and the fanciest retro dresses you can imagine, girls are walking about in every style possible from vintage quirky to rock-queen cool, and then there are the cool cats who do a great mix of style. You will find men so well-dressed that you feel rather disconnected from reality, as though you have morphed into a style sub-city which only exists in your imagination.

There, wander in and out of the shops you can find along Brick Lane, and you will have more than enough to shop. Two shops I loved in particular, which have a strong web presence as well, is Absolutely Vintage and Beyond Retro.

Absolutely Vintage on Hanbury Street is a must visit. As the name suggests, I went absolutely crazy there – I spotted several good quality Chanel quilted bags on display, and a pair of Ferragamo Vara flats which were half a size too small for me going at 15 pounds. Given it was slightly torn, but where else can you find Ferragamos with a two digit price tag?

I did get this bag for 15 pounds from Absolutely Vintage, in line with my “I have to buy something from a store I love” mantra. The bag’s not so bad, it has an air of old lady cool. Not quite so WTF, but still, ugly-pretty enough for me to bag it.This will cost me about SGD60 here in a Singapore vintage store, so I get a bit of savings out of it.

If you keep walking down Brick Lane you’ll hit Beyond Retro on Cheshire Street, which is yet another store I love. Here’s the entrance for your easy hunting:

A warehouse of sorts, it has clothes from every era and will be a hot favourite with you if you’re not so barred by useless societal dressing “norms” which Singapore tends to stick to i.e. denim and jeans. You’ll find the most fluff in a dress or the highest number of ornaments on a jacket ever here. Dude by the door is someone who’s working in the store, I guess.

Other than these two blockbusters the little stores around the area are gems too, so be sure you allocate a bit of time to hunt around this area.

Next, I recommend Portobello Market. You can walk on foot by alighting at the Notting Hill Gate station. I went there on a Friday which was pretty quiet, but Saturday the full crowd comes out and it should be a blast!

Did not manage to get shots of the interesting stalls as the stall owners generally do not allow snaps, but you can try to imagine a long road as pictured above with stalls along the road filled with random vintage items.

I got this snake bangle for 10 pounds, on reflection it is a bit pricey, but I hardly buy jewelry and when I do it usually is something fierce, like this. Less of the plastic Freedom stuff from Topshop and more of these vintage pieces for me, thank you.

A name which came up on my plea for shop recommendations a couple of weeks back threw up “One of a Kind”, on 253 Portobello Road, which I went in and found the most amazing Ferragamo frame bag in perfect condition. If you’re one to spend an easy three digits on a good quality vintage branded bag then this is definitely the place for you. I remember Kit mentioning that the store’s often frequented by British celebrities as well, if that’s your thing.

After these places, I suggest you take the tube to the Oxford Circus area and walk randomly in any direction. A stone’s throw will turn up H&M, Uniqlo, Urban Outfitters, American Apparel and Topshop. Must not forget Primark, which is some kind of four storey This Fashion, only without the stigma. Shop to your heart’s content there and preserve the health of your credit card as well. Branching off Oxford Circus, Liberty’s great for browsing – it’s a posh version of Tangs and is a joy to simply walk about. Don’t forget the art gallery/section at the fourth level, it’s great to look at.

Situated just behind Liberty’s is Carnaby Street, a best description is a high-end Bugis Street type of place with cool boutiques situated everywhere.

Somewhere in it lies Kingly Court, a square with the cutest Far East Plaza type interior design, vintage and lifestyle stores. You’re bound to walk out of there with something, I came out with an eye mask similar to this from Mnini. I am blatantly channeling Holly Golightly because I caught her on DVD again in Berlin and fell in love with her ear plugs and eye mask:

(Pictures from here)

And lastly, I have no idea what’s the address but you have to find the Abercrombie and Fitch store and go into it. I hear they have the bestlooking models pretending to be salespeople and basically luring you into their store with good looks (bet it works!). Apparently there is some kind of smell-attraction too as the scent they use in-store can be smelt by passers-by even after the store’s closed. I took a peek in the evening when it wasn’t open, so no first hand experience account from me.

I bet there are tonnes of great stores but these are the stores which I took a fancy to. Once again thanks to Susie and Kit who took time out to answer my endless questions, and as for the readers I hope you will find the same kind of ecstasy I did whilst shopping in London! Good luck!